


Stitches and Tears

by EclipseOfTheWild



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, linked universe (fandom)
Genre: Can Warriors' scarf be a character tag because I mention it like every 5 seconds, Everyone's there but not everyone is mentioned, Honestly this whole thing started as me wanting to write a fight scene so, I just wanted to get this written so I can move on to other projects lmao, Light Angst, Mostly Fluff I guess?, Older Sibling Wind (Linked Universe), SMH y'all, So yeah, Soft Legend (Linked Universe), Soft Sky (Linked Universe), Technically I should tag Warriors & Legend but shhhh Warriors doesn't know about that one, Why tf are Soft Sky and Older Sibling Wind not actual tags, like a year ago
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27874501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EclipseOfTheWild/pseuds/EclipseOfTheWild
Summary: "Hylia, it was worse than a tear; the poor fabric had a sizable gash cut down the middle, causing the end of the scarf to be in two halves. He always knew that it was nothing short of a miracle that the scarf hadn’t ever been damaged, but finally seeing it happen, it…hurt more than he thought it would."AKAComplete self-indulgence that turned into a fic somehowFeaturing Wind being a big bro, Sky being wholesome, and Legend being a good lad
Relationships: Sky & Warriors (Linked Universe), Warriors & Wind (Linked Universe)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 85





	Stitches and Tears

**Author's Note:**

> So hello there   
> It's been wayyy too long since I've written anything LU related lmao
> 
> It's..well I'm gonna be frank this is not my best work? But I enjoyed writing it so I figured I'd share it xD
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy <3

Metal blades clanged violently, sending vibrations through Warriors’ arms. His feet dug into the muddy ground, struggling to find purchase as he struggled against the force of his opponent. Rain tore down from the dark clouds above, plastering his bangs to his face. 

Warriors shifted his grip on his sword and disengaged their sword lock, quickly going on the offensive, leaving the other sword-wielder to defend against his savage attacks. They spun and side-stepped across the battlefield in a dangerous dance for their own lives.

His opponent got unlucky enough to lose their balance on the slippery ground, giving Warriors the small opening that he needed. Slamming his foot into the mud, he pushed off with all of his might, holding his sword in front of him, aiming straight for the other’s heart.

Unfortunately for him, he miscalculated his opponent’s speed, and they managed to catch themselves, deflecting his blow with their own sword. The shock of the collision sent him off course and straight onto the ground. Muddy water splashed upwards at the force of his collision, covering the front of his tunic and his scarf. 

If he wasn’t fighting for his life, he’d be angrier about the scarf, but he barely had time to think before the other sword-wielder was driving their blade downwards to finish him off. Warriors rolled onto his back, bringing his sword in front of him to block. Another metallic clang rang in his ears, cutting through the sound of rain as it peppered the ground with water droplets. 

It was apparent that his opponent had the upper-hand with strength, able to use the full force of their body to push down on him, while he was fighting to keep his blade aloft. He lifted his other hand, gripping his blade to keep it from cutting his chest, ignoring the sting of pain as blood was drawn from his palm. He knew that his position was extremely disadvantageous. He could practically hear his former sergeant voice shouting in his head.

_’Once your back’s on the ground, it’s practically a death sentence! Every time you overextend yourself like you just did, you endanger yourself and your squad- you hear me?’_

He overextended himself; he got too cocky, thinking he could finish things quickly. Mistakes like that could be fatal without backup.

Gritting his teeth, he used all of his strength to heave his sword upwards, dislodging his opponent’s balance, quickly turning the tide of the battle as they fell to the ground themselves. Not wasting a second, Warriors scrambled to his feet, placing his boot on the fallen foe’s sword arm, and dealt the final blow, unflinching as the life faded from their eyes.

Finally alone, he exhaled heavily, sheathing his sword. That was too close of a call. The monsters have gotten far stronger than they were before, he couldn’t let his own abilities get to his head. That’s how he lost far too many of his soldiers.

Warriors looked down at himself and cringed- he was an absolute mess. Mud covered his boots and clothes, which were already soaked because of the heavy rain. Hopefully all the mud came out easily, because he did _not_ need Impa scolding him for ruining his tunic.

Again. 

He was more worried about his scarf, however. By some miracle, in all of his battles and scuffles with evil, no matter how many times he absolutely destroyed his tunic, his scarf remained intact. 

His tunic certainly wasn’t the original at this point, but the scarf was. It was extremely important to him, and he couldn’t bear to see it ruined because he got too arrogant in a fight. 

‘Arrogance was always my downfall, wasn’t it?’ Warriors thought bitterly. 

It was a flaw that he could never truly shake, he supposed. He was always the first to rush headlong into battle, no matter the size or amount of the enemies in front of him, consequences be damned. He was prideful by nature, he couldn’t help it. 

Warriors sighed, turning his face up to the sky, letting the cold rain pour onto his face.

“Captain!” A young voice called out.

He turned, seeing Wind and Time jogging towards him and a relieved smile found its way onto his face; he was glad that they were both okay, albeit wet from the rain. 

Time reached him first. “Glad we finally found you. We met up with everyone else, but you were nowhere to be found, so Wind and I split off from the others to catch up with you.” He inspected Warriors condition. “It seems that you were a bit preoccupied.”

“Yeah,” Warriors frowned, annoyed. “I got ambushed by some Stalmasters. Usually it’s easy enough to deal with them but…they were unusually skilled.”

“That does seem to be the case nowadays, doesn’t it?” The older man sighed.

Wind interjected. “We should exchange battle stories when we meet up with everyone else! We ran into a group of moblins from my world, and they were pretty strong! Though…can we get out of this rain? It’s kinda chilly.”

Now that he wasn’t actively fighting, he realized the cold seeping into his bones and shivered. “You’re right, we should head back.” He turned to Time. “Where exactly is everyone else, old man?”

“We planned to meet up back at that giant tree in the center of woods. Sky said it was called the Great Tree.” He replied, before gesturing to the dense cluster of trees they emerged from. “It should be back that way.”

“Alright, let’s hurry. I’m tired, soaking wet, covered in mud, and I just want to go to sleep.” The captain groaned.

With an amused smile, Time nodded and began to lead the way into the woods, leaving behind the muddy clearing. Under the thick canopy of trees, the trio were somewhat protected from the downpour- not that it mattered much, considering that they were already soaked.

Although most of his experience with the time period so far was bad weather and fighting for his life, he had to admit that this world- or what he’d seen of it- was beautiful. The forest they appeared in was vibrant and incredibly vast, bearing fruits that he’d never seen before. Plenty of unknown creatures scampered around in the undergrowth, and he recalled seeing a beautiful waterfall during his exploration of the area.

At one point, he was pretty sure that he saw some kind of fuzzy animal turn into a bush, but he supposed that he’d seen weirder things on his own adventures. He still planned on asking Sky about it later, though.

Heavy droplets of water fell onto his hair, making him frown, annoyed. The storm seemed to be getting worse, with rolling thunder rumbling overhead and quick flashes of lightning streaking through the sky. Warriors just felt lucky that Time and Wind caught up when they did, or else he would be aimlessly wandering in it, alone.

Which, considering the insanely strong monsters most likely roaming the area, wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time. 

Sighing, he ran a hand through his wet hair. “So, old man, how far exactly is that ‘Great Tree’ you mentioned?”

“Hm?” Time seemed to have been lost in thought. “Well, shouldn’t be too far, but I couldn’t exactly give an accurate estimate for you. At the very least, it didn’t take us very long to get here from where we all met up.“

“I guess that’s better than nothing.” Warriors conceded. 

The youngest piped up. “I think I remember Sky saying that it was only a few-minute walk to the tree from where we were! Then you can get the mud off your clothes and fix up your scarf!”

“I look forward to that- wait what?” Warriors stopped. “’Fix up my scarf?’”

Wind looked confused, but then a look of realization spread across his face. “You didn’t know? There’s a tear in the fabric. I assumed you noticed because of how…”

His words were mostly tuned out as the captain looked down at his precious scarf. The mud still covered the royal blue of the fabric, but as he inspected it, his eyes immediately found the fore-mentioned tear. Hylia, it was worse than a tear; the poor fabric had a sizable gash cut down the middle, causing the end of the scarf to be in two halves. He always knew that it was nothing short of a miracle that the scarf hadn’t ever been damaged, but finally seeing it happen, it…hurt more than he thought it would.

“Captain…?” The young sailor’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Warriors looked down; giving him a comforting smile that he hoped wasn’t too strained. “Sorry, Wind, just thinking. I’ll figure out the scarf when we get back, it’s alright.” That was the hope, at least.

Wind seemed to consider something as he stared at the older boy. “It’s okay if you’re upset about it, y’know. I know if my telescope was damaged I’d be distraught about it…” He placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve got nine legendary heroes on our side! I know that we’ll be able make your scarf look as good as new!”

“…Thanks, sailor.” The captain’s smile became a tad more genuine.

The younger hero grinned. “No problem! Now let’s hurry and get out of the rain!”

Time was waiting patiently a bit ahead, a soft smile on his face as he watched the two. At realizing they were ready to continue, he turned, gesturing wordlessly to follow him. The trio resumed their trek, Warriors, needing to do something, began picking clumps of mud off of his scarf as they walked. It didn’t do much in terms of cleaning it, but it at least helped him focus. 

Wind was right; the scarf could easily be fixed. What was important right then was getting safely back to camp.

Yet that didn’t stop his gaze from drifting to the tear the whole walk back.

-

“You look like you had a fun time in the rain, pretty boy.” Legend commented as the three entered the firelight of camp. “I thought dogs were the ones to roll around in the mud.”

For whatever reason, Twilight gave him an unimpressed glare at the comment as the pink-haired hero smirked teasingly.

“Haha, very funny.” Warriors rolled his eyes. “I ran into a bit of trouble with some monsters, but I handled it. Just got some mud on my clothes…and I tore my scarf.”

Sky gave him a look of understanding. “Well, I can help you clean out the mud if you’d like. Sewing hasn’t ever been much of a strong suit of mine, though. Zelda’s usually the one who fixes my clothing.”

“How about we deal with the mud tonight and we’ll take a look at the scarf tomorrow and see what we can do to fix it.” Twilight suggested. “It’ll be easier to assess in the morning when the clouds have cleared and we have the sunlight.”

The captain agreed, taking off his scarf and outer tunic and following Sky away from camp. The rain was still pounding into the ground, but the large, leafy branches of the…’Great Tree’ sheltered them from most of the water.

Warriors noted the striking similarity of the tree to the Great Deku Tree from his own time. Idly, he wondered if they were the same tree. Though, this one didn’t have the same strange, wooden face. Could magical trees grow faces? 

…He really wouldn’t be surprised if they did. 

His shoulders slumped as he let out a loud sigh. Wordlessly, his gaze slipped to the cloth held in his hands. In reality, he knew he shouldn’t be that upset about it since it was going to be fixed anyways, but he couldn’t help getting a sour feeling staring at the tear in his scarf.

“Are you doing alright?” Sky’s voice suddenly cut through the silence, making Warriors’ head snap up to look at the other hero.

“Ah, I guess…” He shrugged. “It’s just that I’ve never torn the scarf before, so it was a bit jarring for me.”

Sky nodded. “I get it. The first time I ever tore my sailcloth I was distraught until Zelda fixed it for me. Doesn’t seem like it’d be a big deal, but when it happens it suddenly is, I suppose.”

“Yeah, it definitely sucks.” Warriors shook his head, before smiling slightly. “Honestly I just pray that Impa doesn’t find out about it. She’s bad enough when I damage the tunic, can’t imagine her reaction to damaging the scarf.”

The other hero adopted a sympathetic look. “Best of luck with that.” He paused. “Actually, I’ve wondered for a while…where exactly did the scarf come from?”

“Oh! It apparently was traditional ‘hero’s clothing’ or something to that affect. I always sort of assumed that it came from past incarnations of heroes but...clearly that isn’t the case.” Warriors gave a smirk. “Maybe they just wanted to have a hero with a sense of style for once.”

Sky’s eyes gained a playful gleam. “I don’t know if you can call it your sense of style if you never picked out the outfit, pretty boy.”

He gasped, mock offended. “I’ll have you know that I’m the most stylish of all of you. You’re just jealous that you don’t have a fabulous scarf like mine.”

“Oh, trust me I’m happy with what I have.” Sky chuckled. “Unlike your hand-me-down, my sailcloth was handmade by Zelda.” 

Warriors crossed his arms, pouting. “It’s not a hand-me-down.”

A moment passed. Simultaneously, the two boys broke out into laughter. 

“I never realized you had so much sass in you, Sky.” Warriors grinned.

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Just comes with the job, I guess. Oh!” Sky came to a stop. “We’re here!”

Not far from where the he had stopped, a large pond stretched out in front of the two heroes. A large, thick tree root stretched over the water, still miraculously dry due to the overhanging leaves of the tree it belonged to. 

Warriors sighed, suddenly reminded of why they were there in the first place. “Well, let’s get this over with, I guess.”

The mud came out easily, but it didn’t change the state of his tattered scarf, nor did it manage to make him feel any better about the situation.

-

By the time the two returned to camp, Wild had dished out a hearty pumpkin stew for everyone. It was good, as it always was, but Warriors ended up only eating half before excusing himself to go set up his bedroll. 

Seven of the heroes let him go with some words of comfort and looks of encouragement.

One stared after him, eyes narrowing. 

-

One stitch, two. The needle went in and out of the fabric, a deep blue thread following through. A small, but bright lantern lit the area as he worked, with each stitch small and precise. 

Everyone else was long asleep, leaving him the only one awake. That’s what he wanted. 

The camp was quiet as he silently sewed into the night.

-

“Oh, hey! You fixed your scarf!” Hyrule gave him a smile as he noticed the garment around his neck.

Warriors shook his head. “It was like this when I woke up this morning. Don’t know who fixed it, though.” 

The brunette tilted his head, thoughtful. “Huh, that’s strange. It’s cool that it’s fixed, though.”

He nodded, grinning. “Yeah, I’m with you there.”

A ways away, a blonde hero with a streak of pink in his hair smiled to himself as he wordlessly packed away his needle and thread.


End file.
